IPL 2020: Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders – Probable playing XI and team news
The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League enters its fourth week with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) taking on the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Both teams won their previous encounters on Saturday, with KKR defeating Kings XI Punjab by a matter of inches, the margin being 2 runs, and RCB cruising home after yet another poor batting performance from CSK.
The two teams played out two of the most thrilling encounters last year, with the away team winning on both occasions. KKR, powered by an insane onslaught from Andre Russell at the Chinnaswamy in the 17th match of the IPL last year, which saw the Jamaican bludgeoning 7 towering sixes, chased down a steep target of 206 with 5 balls to spare.
KKR almost robbed RCB of yet another convincing victory in the return fixture at the Eden Gardens, thanks to yet another tour de force from Russell with great support from Nitish Rana, but fell short by what seemed a very slim margin in the end, 10 runs.
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RCB v KKR: Head-To-Head
The two teams faced off in the first-ever IPL match in 2008, in which Brendon McCullum’s memorable 158 helped KKR register a massive 140-run victory. Since then, KKR have gone on to win 13 more matches in a total of 23 encounters. KKR-RCB contests over the last few years have been heavily lopsided towards KKR, with the Knight Riders doing the double in 2018 and 2017.
Team News: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Chris Morris’ inclusion to the side has given the RCB the perfect balance that they were seeking for. Unless there are any last-minute injuries of changes of plan, RCB are likely to go in with the same team.
Probable XI: Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Chris Morris, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal
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Team News: Kolkata Knight Riders
The game against the Kings XI Punjab did more harm than good for KKR. Sunil Narine had been reported for a suspect action, and Andre Russell suffered an injury to his leg. It would be understandable if KKR are to give Narine a break and call up Chris Green for a like-for-like replacement. As for Russell, KKR would not want to rush things with him, instead opting for the services of the much-hyped England batsman, Tom Banton.
Probable XI: Tom Banton, Rahul Tripathi, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Chris Green, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy